The object of the invention refers to a chain link for an energy drag chain for guiding conduits, tubes or similar.
Energy drag chains are used when a mobile component, especially a component that moves essentially on a predetermined path, must be supplied with utilities, for example, power, water or similar. In such cases, conduits, tubes and similar must be guided from a stationary connecting point to a mobile connecting point in such a way that movement of the component on its predetermined movement path is made possible without its resulting in damage to the conduits.
Various embodiments of an energy drag chain are known. An energy drag chain is formed by chain links connected to one another in an articulated manner, whereby the energy drag chain is moved along a predetermined path. The chain links form a channel in which the conduits, tubes or similar are placed.
A chain link has at least one cross piece and two link plates arranged at a distance from one another. The link plates are designed so that they can be joined in an articulated manner with the link plates of a neighboring chain link. The link plates of the chain link are connected in an articulated manner through at least one cross piece. The joint between the cross piece and the link plate is hereby designed so that the cross piece is joined to at least one link plate so that the access to the lines in the guide channel or in the chain link is facilitated, and so that the insertion or removal of the conduits as well as possible access to the lines for maintenance purposes is easily possible. For this purpose, the joining of the cross piece to a link plate is separated and the cross piece is deflected to the other link plates.
In order to form separable joints between a cross piece and the link plate, several possibilities are known in the state of the art. For example, from WO 00/63586 a snap-in connection between cross piece and link plate is known which can be separated manually without the use of tools.
WO 98/34040 A1 describes an energy drag chain in which the cross piece has end sections for connecting the cross piece to the link plate, which makes swiveling of the cross piece around the swiveling axis in both end sections possible.
Moreover, from U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,432 an energy guide chain is known in which one cross piece per chain link is connected separably with the link plates. Hereby the joining of the two link plates is done with snap-in catches which are always formed on the cross pieces. Starting from this, the task of the present invention is to provide a chain link in which the swivelability of the cross piece is improved.